Styling brushes which can be attached to a hot air blower or permanently mounted as part of a hair styling tool are well known in the art. Generally, the body of the brush had an inner hollow volume following the longitudinal extent of the body forming an air channel to act as a collector. The air channel has an open end to allow a hot air stream to flow into the air channel. Air escape openings connect the air channel with the outer shell surface of the tubular body. Several rows of bristles are distributed circumferentially with respect to the tubular body. The rows of bristles can be formed by individual bristle elements of synthetic material or steel, or by tufts of bristles. The individual bristle rows are disposed along the longitudinal extent of the tubular body.
The flow of hot air is a limiting factor in the amount of heat supplied to the hair to be shaped. This can be limited when desirable close spacing of the individual bristles prevents further perforation of the tubular body. In order to supply more heat to the hair to be shaped prior art styling and curling hairbrushes have an additional air stream flowing along the shell surface of the tubular body. To accomplish this the hairbrush has an air stream divider to direct a portion of the hot air stream flowing to the hairbrush onto the outside of the tubular body. This air stream flows through the individual bristles or bristle rows at their base.
The prior art curling hairbrushes do shape hair with the heat supplied via the hot air stream. However, a limitation of the prior art curling hairbrush is that hair which is next to the exit openings of the outer air stream gets more heat than the hair that is farther from the air exit openings. This is caused by the hair in close proximity to the air exit openings blocking the path of the air stream to the more remote hair and/or hair bristles. Even if it may occasionally be desired to attain a different shaping result over the useful length of such a hairbrush within the same shaping process, it would be desirable to have a styling and curling hairbrush available with which shaping results are identical over the entire useful length.
Building on the discussed prior art, the invention addresses the problem of a styling and curling hairbrush in which the disadvantages listed under the discussed prior art are at least largely avoided.
This problem is solved in the present invention when the bristle rows of the brush are spaced apart. The individual bristle rows are disposed next to an air guidance element which is closed in the radial direction and forms an air flow channel open to the adjacent bristle row or rows.